The present invention relates to bicycle wheel spokes, of the type comprising a body of fibre reinforced plastic material, such as a carbon fibre material.
In recent times, in the endeavour to decrease the weight of the bicycle, particularly in the case of race bicycles, studies have been more and more developed towards the use of spokes of fibre reinforced plastic material, such as carbon fibre reinforced material. The use of spoke of this type can provide an advantageous decrease of weight of about 3 grams for each spoke. In a typical case, a bicycle front wheel includes twelve spokes (six spokes on each side) and a rear wheel includes thirty-six spokes (twelve spokes on one side and twenty-four on the other side). Therefore, the decrease of weight may arrive to be in the order of 100 grams, which is not neglectable in a race bicycle. However, the use of spokes made of a fibre reinforced plastic material involves technological complications if one wants to connect the spoke to the wheel rim (which, as the hub, is made of metal, such as a light alloy) by threaded coupling means, in order to enable the spoke tension to be adjusted, similarly to what is made in the case of conventional metal spokes. Indeed, due to the use of the fibre reinforced plastic material it is not possible to form a thread on the spoke end as in the case of conventional metal spokes, where this spoke end engages a hole in the rim and receives an adjusting and locking nut or nipple.